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European Alternatives

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Re: European Alternatives

#311

Post by lava_pidgeon »

0xDEAFBEAD wrote: post #303
202508042147 wrote: post #174

One obvious thing missing from any of those lists: Visa and Mastercard alternatives. This is the protection money that is never brought up by the US officials when they say that America was paying for our security.

Eh, as an American I have to pay Visa/Mastercard fees too. Why do European drug firms charge so much more for their drugs in the US than in Europe? That is an actual difference between what it is like to be in a consumer in US vs Europe. Even Bernie Sanders thinks it is a problem: https://www.npr.org/2024/09/24/nx-s1-5123689/novo-nordisk-ce...

While Master Card and a Visa there is a EU regulation limiting the fees, health insurance is mainly national level. So you could ask the question why is Ozempic cheap in Australia? But I can't answer your question.

Re: European Alternatives

#312

Post by s_dev »

dagurp wrote: post #304
s_dev wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/digital_euro/html/index.en.ht... The digital Euro has not been implemented yet. Some analysts are skeptical but this is the EUs answer for Visa/Mastercard.

For small transactions right? I haven't looked much into it but I thought the main purpose was to save people all the transaction fees.

That's not the main purpose. The main purpose is tech independence.

Re: European Alternatives

#313

Post by s_dev »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #203
202508042147 wrote: post #166

Doing my bit: migrating my small company's db this weekend from AWS RDS to Hetzner VPS + volumes. Fingers crossed! Already done: replaced SendGrid with Sweego. Later: move domains from US registrar to EU based. The difficult bit is the Microsoft Office because we are also using Azure DevOps for code, tickets, wiki and ci/cd.

What EU based registrars would you recommend?

https://european-alternatives.eu/category/domain-name-regist...

It's all in there.

Re: European Alternatives

#314

Post by MrDresden »

0xDEAFBEAD wrote: post #303
202508042147 wrote: post #174

One obvious thing missing from any of those lists: Visa and Mastercard alternatives. This is the protection money that is never brought up by the US officials when they say that America was paying for our security.

Eh, as an American I have to pay Visa/Mastercard fees too. Why do European drug firms charge so much more for their drugs in the US than in Europe? That is an actual difference between what it is like to be in a consumer in US vs Europe. Even Bernie Sanders thinks it is a problem: https://www.npr.org/2024/09/24/nx-s1-5123689/novo-nordisk-ce...

Many European countries have a single payer system when it comes to the medical system. That gives them a big leverage in negotiations for drug pricing.

Re: European Alternatives

#315

Post by lava_pidgeon »

whilenot-dev wrote: post #88
loehnsberg wrote: post #27

Isn't it sad that we now have Russian, Chinese, American, European, etc alternatives? I mean I get it, Sept 11 paved the way for FISA orders and NSA overreach, Russia and China reverted back into dictatorship, but Europe is also at the edge. Shouldn't we rather fight that nationalistic power grab that just makes us all poorer and less free? And instead propagate global alternatives that are not subjected by some powe…

> Isn't it sad that we now have Russian, Chinese, American, European, etc alternatives? [...] Shouldn't we rather fight that nationalistic power grab [...] While I agree with your sentiment, European and nationalistic are two contradicting positions, unlike the other three mentioned superpowers.

What is nation is not a objective question. People can define Europe as nation and then you can have an nationalistic Europe.

Re: European Alternatives

#317

Post by 0xDEAFBEAD »

lava_pidgeon wrote: post #311
0xDEAFBEAD wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, as an American I have to pay Visa/Mastercard fees too. Why do European drug firms charge so much more for their drugs in the US than in Europe? That is an actual difference between what it is like to be in a consumer in US vs Europe. Even Bernie Sanders thinks it is a problem: https://www.npr.org/2024/09/24/nx-s1-5123689/novo-nordisk-ce...

While Master Card and a Visa there is a EU regulation limiting the fees, health insurance is mainly national level. So you could ask the question why is Ozempic cheap in Australia? But I can't answer your question.

This website appears to indicate that Visa/Mastercard fees are about 6x as high in the US vs EU:

https://wallethub.com/edu/credit-card-interchange-fees-by-co...

The EU had such a good deal with the US. But they couldn't resist making fun of us. They made fun of us for our military spending while we deterred Russia. They made fun of us for our health spending while we subsidized their drug development costs. They made fun of our long work hours, while demanding Ukraine contributions based on our high GDP (which is high in part because we work long hours). They talk so much about America's soft power in Europe, without realizing that Europe's soft power in America is practically all gone at this point.

Re: European Alternatives

#318

Post by pixodaros »

0xDEAFBEAD wrote: post #303
202508042147 wrote: post #174

One obvious thing missing from any of those lists: Visa and Mastercard alternatives. This is the protection money that is never brought up by the US officials when they say that America was paying for our security.

Eh, as an American I have to pay Visa/Mastercard fees too. Why do European drug firms charge so much more for their drugs in the US than in Europe? That is an actual difference between what it is like to be in a consumer in US vs Europe. Even Bernie Sanders thinks it is a problem: https://www.npr.org/2024/09/24/nx-s1-5123689/novo-nordisk-ce...

AFAIK, Medicare in the USA is forbidden by law from using its big market to drive a hard bargain like most national health services can (Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003). So its like employers paying workers less in jurisdictions where they can't unionize and strike.

Re: European Alternatives

#319

Post by 0xDEAFBEAD »

MrDresden wrote: post #314
0xDEAFBEAD wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, as an American I have to pay Visa/Mastercard fees too. Why do European drug firms charge so much more for their drugs in the US than in Europe? That is an actual difference between what it is like to be in a consumer in US vs Europe. Even Bernie Sanders thinks it is a problem: https://www.npr.org/2024/09/24/nx-s1-5123689/novo-nordisk-ce...

Many European countries have a single payer system when it comes to the medical system. That gives them a big leverage in negotiations for drug pricing.

When European customers pay American firms, it's "protection money".

When American customers pay European firms, it's just capitalism, sorry bro.

Re: European Alternatives

#320

Post by psychoslave »

lava_pidgeon wrote: post #315
whilenot-dev wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Isn't it sad that we now have Russian, Chinese, American, European, etc alternatives? [...] Shouldn't we rather fight that nationalistic power grab [...] While I agree with your sentiment, European and nationalistic are two contradicting positions, unlike the other three mentioned superpowers.

What is nation is not a objective question. People can define Europe as nation and then you can have an nationalistic Europe.

That’s just as meaningful in the context as saying that humanity is a nation for some definition of the term.

Europe is many things, but probably a poor base to push any nationalistic aspiration.

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